October 25, 2026
For Belleville, Dr. Federal Champion belongs to the years before the house at 218 South Charles Street. A newspaper profile published in 1896 looked back on the physician and medicine maker who had flourished here nearly sixty years earlier. It offers a vivid sketch of a man whose work touched medicine, business, and civic life.
The 1847 obituary says Champion was born in New Jersey on December 22, 1800, practiced medicine in Ohio from 1835 to 1840, and moved to Belleville in 1840. It reports that he died on November 3, 1847, in his 47th year. The 1896 profile places him in St. Louis in 1840 before describing his move to Belleville with his wife and children. The accounts agree on the broad arc, though some details deserve comparison with other records.
Champion became known for fever-and-ague and other pills. The 1896 writer describes a laboratory operation and says Champion’s medicines continued to be made after his death. A contemporary 1847 obituary also describes a stock of medicines and says the business would continue. These accounts show that Champion was remembered as both a physician and a proprietor.
The 1896 profile also follows the family beyond the doctor: his wife Patience Ann, their daughters, and their son Frank. That family thread leads from Belleville to St. Louis and to the later house associated with the Champion name. One key identification helps connect the records: B. F. Champion was Benjamin Franklin Champion, known in the family as Frank.
This is a portrait assembled from newspapers written at different times. The 1847 obituary is closer to the events; the 1896 biography preserves additional family and business details but was written decades later. Read together, they introduce a consequential Belleville family while leaving room for more records to fill in the story.
Read the October 2, 1896 profile of Dr. Federal Champion